R-9: LOVE AND OTHER ABSTRACTIONS

Pitch: When seventeen-year-old adopted Liberty learns she may have ALS and might have to give up her art, she sets out on a secret road trip to find the brother she lost.

First 250 Words:
Everything changed at 6:42 on a Tuesday night. Pat Sajak woke me out of my TV stupor when he attempted a lame joke, telling that malnourished Vanna White he wasn’t a primate. Um, Pat, I wanted to shout at the TV. Humans are primates! My right thumb, poised to turn the channel and flee the spinning wheel, lost strength when I tried to push the button. If my digit were battery-powered, then the Energizer Bunny chose that second to stop beating its bass drum. My thumb twitched as if possessed, and I watched with mild curiosity. Not a big deal under normal circumstances. But after the letter I found from my birth mom concealed in my mom’s underwear drawer, it possibly means the end of me. For twelve years I’ve managed to lock my birth mother away, but here she is again, forcing me to slip back into a past I want to forget.

Now I sit cross-legged on my bedroom floor in front of my mirror, my dad’s clippers in hand. Today is the last day of junior year, and there’s no way I’m going to waste it worrying about shit I can’t control. That will come later. Or sooner. I have no idea. I raise my right arm toward the ceiling and stare at my hand, wiggle my fingers, pretend I’m holding a paintbrush as I swipe an imaginary canvas. I’m healthy. I’m fine. Breathe.